Based on my experience, currently owning 2 water-cooled bikes, shutting off the bike for a minute or so isn't going to keep the temp low.
If he shows up in September I'll buy his Reuben but he would probably ***** about that to. :lol:
Wuss.
+1, Gunny; RadioHowie, also know as D.P. Gumby - My Brain Hurts!
I agree with Howie and Scotty. I was a munitions guy in the AF--nuclear bombs, in fact, so they kept a close eye on us. We kept the bombs in these big secure double-locked igloos inside a double-fenced and closely guarded stronghold. When we needed one, we pulled it in on a trailer with a tractor or warehouse tug. One hot Monday we brought one in, and then parked the tractor outside, where it began erupting with smoke. LOTS of smoke. A couple guys got fire extinguishers and somebody else called the base fire department. You know, a little fire next to the building holding the NUCLEAR WEAPON!
Irony is funny....just read this after coming back from lunch...where I had a Reuben!!
You're overthinking this Howie. If you roll up to a long stoplight with the bike showing the typical 5 bars (gen II) and shut off the engine, the heatsoak will not trigger the radiator fans while sitting there. If you sit there for 2 minutes with the engine idling you might manage to reach 7/8 bars and trigger the radiator fans. I find it is primarily running of the fans while stopped that causes me personally to overheat. The fans create a nice cloud of hot air that feels like it envelopes the rider. In contrast, rolling down the road the hot air is mostly channeled our and around the rider. Much nicer. As to whether a burp of hot coolant triggers the fans while pulling away from the light - can't say I've ever noticed one way or the other.
Besides the thermodynamics rebuttal to this process, I bet you'll be sorry you got into this habit when your battery starts showing signs of weakness, or your starter gets weird when it's hot, or your engine gives odd hot-start symptoms, or yada yada yada.
I didn't notice any thermodynamic rebuttal in any previous posts. I did see an arguement that a stopped engine puts off more heat than a running engine, and pretty much tuned out after that statement.
And that's a shame, because you misread or misunderstood most, if not all, of what I was saying.
No WAY! You are nuts. I don't want that current hogging fan running after shut-off. Might not be enough juice to re-start. Coolant temp is not measured at the radiator, but inside the engine. So what good is cooling the radiator after shut-off? It's not the hottest point, and is exposed to atmosphere for cooling. And you can cool the radiator all you want, but as you point out the engine coolant where temperature is measured will still be hot has hell keeping that fan running forever.
This is very interesting and highly coincidental, that is the same constant complaint that Mrs. RadioHowie is always mentioning!Irony is funny....just read this after coming back from lunch...where I had a Reuben!!
The only thing I could ***** about it...it was too small!
Pot versus Kettle vs. Black.
Sorry, but I don't agree. Yes, the fan is a current-whore, but the temp sensor which tells the ECU how hot the coolant is isn't "inside the engine"...it's in the coolant pipe right next to the thermostat, six inches or so away from the top of the radiator, so even with the motor off, on an already hot system, there is going to be significant convective motion between hot coolant in the radiator and HOT coolant in the motor. It's not like the fan is going to run for an hour, now is it???
Hey Howie, I did understand your point. I'm from Detroit, I'm a motor-head, I have engineering degrees. I see the coolant temp spike after shutdown all the time, so I know of what you speak. My point is simply that for my commute, in my climate, shutting off the engine at the longer traffic lights keeps *me* a lot cooler. The engine on average stays cooler too. It will typically show 5-6 bars, but never reach 7-8 where the fans come on. If the engine is left running at traffic lights (I go through about 6 major lights in the last ~4 miles home), the fans will come on at every light. The engine temp will perhaps drop one bar riding between lights, but it'll pop right back up at the next light, trigger the fans, and cook me again.
